On July 16, after the morning fog had dissipated, a magnificent blue sky hovered above Pacific Grove. Fifty-five-year-old Jill Murray didn’t see the blue sky or the fog on that summer day; her four-year battle with stage four ovarian cancer came to a close.

She died at 7pm in her home in the company of her caregiver, a chaplain from Heartland Hospice, her husband Dick, and harpist Lynda Jardine.

Jardine, a certified music practitioner provided by Heartland Hospice, began to play her handcrafted Celtic harp at 2pm that day and didn’t stop until Jill took her last breath. According to Dick, he and Jill’s introduction to Jardine, about two months prior, was one of the best things that could’ve happened as they prepared for Jill’s inevitable demise.

“We first heard [Lynda] when Jill was in PG Convalescent. Jill would wake up to talk to her,” Dick says. “Then I called Lynda and had her play every Tuesday. It was soothing to both of our souls.”